30 May 2024 • 11:06pm

Joe Barnes,  BRUSSELS CORRESPONDENT, IN PRAGUE and Verity Bowman

Joe Biden has bowed to international pressure to allow Ukraine to use American weapons to strike Russian territory after the head of Nato said “the time has come” to overturn the ban.

The US has given Kyiv permission to use its weapons to strike Russia for the limited purpose of defending Kharkiv, according to two US officials.

The unnamed officials insisted the US policy preventing Ukraine from using American-provided long-range missiles to strike inside Russia has not changed.

“The president recently directed his team to ensure that Ukraine is able to use US weapons for counter-fire purposes in Kharkiv so Ukraine can hit back at Russian forces hitting them or preparing to hit them,” a US official told Politico.

It comes after Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary-general, said the “time has come” for restrictions to be lifted, after France and Germany earlier this week signalled an easing of their own rules.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, reassured Czech leaders that progress was being made on the issue in meetings on Thursday at the beginning of a two-day summit of Nato ministers in Prague.

It is rare for any Nato chief to directly put pressure on a US president and Mr Stoltenberg’s intervention was described as “surprising” by diplomatic sources.

“Allies are delivering many different types of military support to Ukraine and some of them have imposed some restrictions on the use of these weapons … these are national decisions,” Mr Stoltenberg said in a speech ahead of the gathering.

“But I think that in light of how this war has evolved the time has come to consider some of these restrictions, to enable the Ukrainians to really defend themselves.”

In recent weeks Kyiv has repeatedly urged its Western allies to allow the use of their long-range weapons to strike military targets on Russian soil.

“It was surprising,” a diplomat said of Mr Stoltenberg’s campaign to support Ukraine’s push.

“As important as it was, it is not for the secretary general to be giving advice to individual allies on bilateral issues.”

A growing number of European countries, including Britain and France, have granted Kyiv permission to use Western missiles against Russian military targets before they cross the border.

Moscow is massing troops on the border with Ukraine ahead of a long-awaited summer offensive.

But Washington, Ukraine’s key military backer, had until now refused to approve the use of weapons like the long-range Atacms missiles to strike troops or logistics hubs inside Russia.

President Biden was said to be reluctant amid fears the move could drag Nato into a wider conflict with Russia, a nuclear superpower.

But on Thursday, he was reported for the first time to be “edging towards” a U-turn on the issue as Mr Blinken said the US regularly “adjusts” its position in response to events on the battlefield.

“I’m confident we’ll continue to do that,” he said at a news conference in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova.

The Kremlin on Thursday said Nato members calling for relaxed rules on Western weapons were “provoking” Kyiv into prolonging the war.

Dmitry Suslov, an influential think-tank analyst linked to Vladimir Putin’s regime, said Russia should consider a “demonstrative” nuclear explosion to warn the West against its missiles being used in cross-border strikes.

Despite the threats, there was a mounting expectation amongst European allies in Prague that Washington would soon overturn its ban.

Range of US ATACMS missiles

US/supplied ATACMS missiles have a range of 190 miles. British-supplied Storm Shadows have a range of 155 miles.

“They [America] are looking into this. From what I understand there will be progress,” a senior Czech official familiar with the discussions told The Telegraph.

The source credited president Emmanuel Macron’s decision this week to allow French weapons to be used to “neutralise” Russian targets over the border.

Jan Lipavsky, the Czech foreign minister, told reporters: “I feel that we are moving on that in the international sphere.”

Mr Blinken was said to have changed his mind on the use of American weapons after he was warned by president Volodymyr Zelensky that Ukraine could lose Kharkiv, its second-largest city, on a “sobering visit” to Kyiv this month, The New York Times reported.

An anonymous US official told the newspaper that it was “inevitable” that Mr Biden would reverse the ban.

The White House is also understood to be cautious about allowing Ukraine’s position on the battlefield to deteriorate too much ahead of Nato’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington in July.

Sources said Russian advances would be used by Donald Trump, who is expected to be officially named the Republican presidential candidate days after the gathering, to further undermine Mr Biden’s flagship policy of defending Ukraine.

….

Russia ‘should consider nuclear explosion to warn West’

Russia should consider a “demonstrative” nuclear explosion to warn the West about allowing their weapons to be fired across the border from Ukraine, advisors to the Kremlin said.

Dmitry Suslov, a member of the Moscow-based Council for Foreign and Defence Policy think tank, said a test detonation could cow the West, which is in the process of relaxing rules about the weapons it gives to Ukraine.

The think tank is influential in Kremlin circles and its ideas sometimes become government policy for the Kremlin.

The proposal was issued a day after Vladimir Putin warned the West that Nato members in Europe were playing with fire by relaxing its weapons rules.

The Russian president said it could trigger a global conflict, with Russia, which possesses the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, at the centre.

The US and Germany have so far refused to allow their weapons to be used inside Russia, while French President Emmanuel Macron followed the UK to shift his stance on Tuesday.

Nato leaders are due to meet later today to focus on efforts to hammer out a support package for Ukraine.